A change is as good as a rest!
I’m back in The Met today after spending two days looking after The Idle Rocks Hotel in St Mawes for my colleague Chris. He has had a tough time recently and needed the chance for a couple of days off so I volunteered to baby sit for him. That’s not really the right phrase to use as his team is really good and ran the hotel very well.
Chris has been building up his team since Christmas and is now set for the summer with some lovely people around him. As ever in our industry and in Cornwall these people have come from all over the world so there is a wide range of accents and characters.
We did run into a few minor operational issues along the way but the girls just needed a little help in steering the right people into the right jobs. In a small hotel it is really important for the staff to be ready to help each other out and many of them do switch from department to department during the day. This gives them enough hours work and ensures that all the jobs get done, it also helps to break down lots of the barriers between departments that can build up in big hotels.
All the guests enjoyed their stays while I was there, the service was good and the food I saw last night from Amos and his team was stunning. I am planning to make two trips back there, one with my wife just so we can enjoy the whole experience and another visit with Adam, my chef and Mel, my restaurant manager, so we can crib some good ideas from them on their cooking styles and service systems. Hopefully we will be able to share some of our best practice too.
If Chris will let me I’ll be back there next week for a day and Andrea from Fowey will cover a couple of days too so Chris can get used to having time off again. His team is coming together well and I’m sure he will be having regular (and frequent) days off with his team looking after the hotel for him confidently and competently.
